Chapter 29
America During Its Longest War, 1963-1974
Web
Lyndon B. Johnson in the White
House
 Built on politics of consensus
 Determined to continue Kennedy’s initiatives

Tax cut proposal
 War on Poverty

Economic Opportunity Act
– Office of Economic Opportunity
– Job Corps
– VISTA

Civil Rights

Civil Rights Act of 1964
– Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
– Prohibited racial discrimination in public accommodations associated with
interstate commerce


Mississippi Freedom Summer
Freedom Democratic Party
Election of 1964

Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater





Unabashedly conservative campaign
Described as on the “radical right”
Even many republicans considered him extreme
Johnson reelected handily
Trouble beneath the surface



Appeal of segregationist George Wallace
Reinvigorated conservatives
Propelled new Republicans into prominence
– Ronald Reagan
– William Rehnquist
Great Society
 Fulfillment of dreams of Johnson’s Democratic
predecessors




Medical care for the elderly and low-income citizens (Medicare
and Medicaid)
Created Department of Housing and Urban development
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Heartened Johnson’s supporters and appalled his critics

Goal was to help people fight their own way out of economic
distress
Evaluating the Great society
 Rekindled debates about proper role of national




government
Raised expectations that could not be met
Conservatives have been unrelentingly critical
Leftists lamented failure to challenge the prevailing
distribution of political power and wealth in order to
reduce poverty
Agreement that Great Society left its mark


First significant outlay of federal dollars for social programs
since New Deal
Significantly expanded reach of welfare state
Escalation in Vietnam, 1964
 Tonkin Gulf Resolution
 Stemmed from confusing events in August, 1964


Resolution in Congress



Became justification for concerted U.S. involvement
“All necessary measures to repel armed attack”
Johnson used as tantamount to congressional declaration of
war
Debate over extent of American involvement within
administration
Escalation in Vietnam, 1964 (cont.)



Some voices calling for stepped up U.S. presence
Others warned than “Americanization” would bring only defeat
Johnson feared political consequences of pulling out
– Feared fallout on Great Society
– Believed in domino effect


Operation Rolling Thunder
Deployment of U.S. ground forces
Escalation in Vietnam 1965

Use of napalm to defoliate jungle cover
 Further ground troop deployment
 Each escalation seemed to make further escalation inevitable
 U.S. and North Vietnam became locked in game of escalation and
counter-escalation
 Search and destroy missions
 Saturation bombing (Operation Ranch-hand)
 Johnson refused to be candid with public about extent of war
escalation
 I.S. escalation generated help to North Vietnam from China and the
Soviet Union
 South Vietnamese government in precarious state


Countryside being devastated
Flood of U.S. aid dollars destabilizing economy
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
Vietnam War
The Media and the War






Lack of actual Declaration of War prevented strict controls on
reporting
Television coverage made Vietnam a “living room war”
Johnson fanatical about monitoring war coverage
Antiwar activists criticized perceived prop-war media
coverage
Some reporters were overt in their criticism
Public became polarized into “hawks” and “doves”
The New Left

Students for a democratic Society (SDS)


Endorsed civil rights and the fight against racial discrimination
Port Huron Statement
– Called for participatory democracy that would be responsive to the
wishes of local communities

General opposition to the “establishment”


Unrest on college and university campuses
War came to dominate agenda of student protesters by 1966



Debate over student deferments
Draft card burning
Unstructured demonstrations came to dominate campus life
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning ™ is a trademark used herein under license.
American Attitudes toward Vietnam War
The Counterculture




Rejected traditional attitudes on clothing, hair styles, and
sexuality
Embraced an experimental approach to daily life and an
environmental ethic
Media highlighted association with drugs, communal living
arrangements, and new forms of folk-rock music
Participated in 1967 march on the Pentagon
From Civil Rights to Black Power

Watts riots, 1965
 Malcolm X and Black Power








Black Panthers



Initially affiliated with Nation of Islam
Integration was unworkable
Self-defense “By any means necessary”
Renewed pride in African-American heritage
Vigorous efforts at community reconstruction
Organized Organization of Afro-American Unity after breaking with
Nation of Islam
Murdered in 1965 by enemies of Nation of Islam
Criticized slow pace of civil rights litigation
Preached confrontation and self-defense
Civil Rights Act of 1968


Fair housing provision watered down to protect landlords and real
estate agents
Federal offense to cross state lines in order to incite a “riot”
– Directly aimed at Black Panthers
1968:Violence Overseas

Tet Offensive, January




Serious psychological defeat for United States
Called into question claims of imminent victory
Contributed to policy that would later be called “Vietnamization”
Johnson announced he would not run for reelection, March
– Halted bombing of North
– Initiated peace talks
1968: Violence at Home
 Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in April
 Spurred violence and riots across the country
 Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in June
 Violence at political conventions
 Republicans plagued by racial violence in Miami
 Democrats hurt by brutal suppression of anti-protesters in
Chicago
Election of 1968



Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was Democratic nominee
Republicans ran Richard Nixon
George Wallace ran on American Independent Party


Spoke of using nuclear weapons to end war in Vietnam
Nixon won narrow victory
Nixon’s Economic Program



Two decades of economic growth came to an end during
Nixon presidency
Inherited high levels of domestic spending, and expensive
war in Vietnam, and the deteriorating, but still favorable
balance of trade
Soaring unemployment and price inflation



What economists came to call “stagflation”
Nation ran its first trade deficit of the twentieth century in
1971
New Economy policy


90 day freeze on wages and prices
Subsequent government monitoring to detect excessive
increases in either
Nixon’s Economic Program (cont.)

Abandoned gold-to-dollar ratio in 1971


Dollar would thereafter “float” against both Gold and all other
currencies
Devalued dollar in 1973


Cheapened price of American goods in foreign markets
Little improvement of U.S. trade balance resulted
Nixon’s Social Policy

Family Assistance Plan









Abolish other welfare programs, including AFDC
Institute a guaranteed annual income for all families
End Post-New Deal system of aid to those in particular
circumstances
Provide aid to everyone
Not implemented
New federalism plan to return federal tax money to the
states in the form of black grants with virtually no restrictions
Supplementary Social Security Insurance for the elderly,
blind, and disabled
Gradual expansion of Medicare and Medicaid
Social Security payments indexed to inflation in 1972
The Supreme Court during the
Nixon Administration

Dominated by activist majority devoted to recognizing a
broad range of constitutionally protected rights

Miranda v. Arizona guaranteed rights to persons accused of
violent crime
– Conservatives saw as coddling of criminals

Three conservative justices appointed by Nixon



Harry Blackmun, William Rehnquist, and Lewis Powell
Dandridge v. Williams declared that welfare was not a
national right
Roe v. Wade ruled that a state law making abortion a crime
violated a woman’s right of privacy
Foreign Policy Under Nixon


Key Advisor was Henry Kissinger, national security advisor
Détente as major foreign policy goal



Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with Soviet Union
Opening toward China
Vietamization



Withdrawal of U.S. troops
Stepping up of air war and intensifying diplomatic efforts to
reach settlement
Nixon Doctrine
– U.s. Military assistance to anticommunist government in Asia
– Nations left to provide their own military forces
Foreign Policy Under Nixon (cont.)




Withdraw U.S. troops but not accept compromise or defeat
Adhered to bombing halt over North
New operations in South
Incursion into neutral Cambodia
– Spurred opposition at home
• Kent State and Jackson State
– Contributed top rise of Khmer Rouge
End of U.S. involvement in
Vietnam



Secret war protected in Laos and Cambodia after 1970
Peace talks in Paris proceeded as war was actually
expanding
Communists within 30 miles of Saigon in the Spring of 1972



Cease-fire announced weeks before 1972 election
After election, U.S. firepower increased dramatically


Christmas bombing
Paris Peace Accords, 1973


Nixon responded with resumption of bombing and mining of
harbors in North
Withdrawal of U.S. troops
South Vietnamese discontinued to fight

Collapsed in April 1973
Aftermath of the Vietnam War




3.5 million Americans served, 58,000 died, 150,000
wounded, 2,000 remain missing
Blame game played by all sides after the war
was after
All Americans could be “no more Vietnams”
Watergate
 Caused collapse of Nixon’s presidency stemmed from Nixon’s
deep mistrust for nearly everyone in Washington

Established “plumbers” unit to protect administration from
“enemies”


Funded by illegal campaign contributions
Broke into Democratic Party’s headquarters during 1972 re-election
campaign
– Irony is that Nixon won election handily and didn’t need to resort to “dirty
tricks” to win


Administration was involved but denied it and instituted cover up
instead
The press, Congress, and the federal judiciary, all began searching
for the truth
 Eventually bits of the truth began trickling out, and Nixon was
implicated in both the original break in and in the cover up
Watergate (cont.)

Nixon continued to deny involvement, even after discovery of a
secret White House taping system that could implicate him if the
tapes were surrendered to the courts


House Judiciary Committee voted three articles of impeachment



Web
Obstruction of Justice, violation of constitutional liberties, refusal to
produce evidenced requested during the impeachment process
In the end, Nixon chose to resign rather than face trial by the
senate


Supreme Court ruled unanimously in U.S.v. Nixon that he had to give
them up
Left office in disgrace on August 9, 1974, succeeded by Gerald Ford
Received an unconditional pardon by Ford
Public knowledge and understanding of Watergate not high today